The government could be set for a bleak winter as hundreds of thousands of civil servants prepare to vote on whether to take national industrial action for at least three months over ministers' "morally bankrupt" pay policy.

The Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union said it planned to coordinate strike action with fellow trade unions to "maximise disruption" and bring public services to a standstill.

The union's general secretary, Mark Serwotka, announced today that around 270,000 of its members across the UK working in every government department would be balloted later this month on a rolling programme of industrial action scheduled to take place from November until February 2009.

The PCS is one of seven unions behind a composite motion on coordinated industrial action being debated tomorrow on the opening day of the annual TUC conference in Brighton.

The motion calls for local, regional and national joint campaigning and coordination of industrial action over pay.

Serwotka told a press conference in Brighton on the eve of the first day of the conference that the unions wanted to create "maximum disruption".

He said: "It will be targeted and it will be imaginative and cause the most disruption possible."

The PCS decision to ballot comes amid growing anger over the government's policy of trying to limit pay rises in the public sector to 2% this year, which Serwotka said was disproportionately hitting some of the lowest paid workers in the country.

The union has produced a DVD to highlight the plight of low paid civil servant members, one quarter of whom earn less than £16,500.

Every single government department will be affected, including the Home Office, the education and transport departments as well as the Department for Work and Pensions.

Serwotka said that despite claiming to be on the side of hard-pressed families, the government nevertheless compounded the financial misery for hundreds of thousands of hard working people by pursuing an "unjust pay policy".

He said: "Our members have grown increasingly frustrated by the government peddling the myth that they are the causes of inflation when they see their food, fuel and housing costs soar.

"Faced with pay cuts, pay freezes and increasing financial hardship, civil and public servants will not tolerate the government's approach to pay which is disproportionately hitting some of the lowest paid in the economy."

The National Union of Teachers decided on Friday to hold a fresh ballot of its members over pay, while around half a million Unison local government members are still involved in a long running dispute over a 2.45% pay deal.